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My iMac 21.5" Mid-2011 (i5 2.7 GHz) has started exhibiting a strange behavior where small colored squares, about 1/8", appear all over the screen. They then proceed to dance around the screen as I continue to work on the computer. I've attached a screen shot. From searching the forums it appears others have this problem, but I am unable to find any threads that actually contain a fix. Any help would be very much appreciated!
This problem began for me a few years ago. I took my Mac to a local authorized repair center instead of the Apple Store because a 27" iMac from 2011 weighs a ton and I didn't want to drag it through a shopping mall to the Apple Store. The local repair place has a parking lot and I can just carry it in.
They tested it and said the graphics card tested bad. So I had it replaced. I forgot what it cost but it wasn't cheap. It worked fine after that but the hard drive tested bad so I had that replaced, too. Between the two repairs, I spent close to $750. At that point, I vowed not to spend one more cent on this Mac.
Lo and behold, a few months later, the problem started again. At first, it wasn't too bad but now it's back to the point where it's freezing my iMac. I want to throw this piece of junk out the window and buy a new iMac but I just lost my job and I can't afford it. I don't know what I'm going to do.
So, there's the correct answer. Throw the iMac out the window, being careful to make sure it doesn't land on anyone.
So this latest manifestation of the problem has me scratching my head... This capture was taken from my Win 7 Boot Camp (virtualized through Fusion 8.1). It appears the little squares are somehow behind the opaque Win 7 toolbar. I have no idea what conclusion to draw from this!
Just dropped my iMac off at the local Apple Store. They did a limited amount of testing (not as much testing available for older models) and were pretty confident the graphics card is the culprit (echoing Eddie Jasmine). They are going to replace the card and get it back to me in 2-3 days. Total will be $175 ($135 for the card and $40 for labor) assuming replacing the card fixes the problem. I'll keep you all posted.
kindred5, have you run an Apple Hardware Test? I also suspected the video card, but ran the extended AHT multiple times and it always says all hardware is fine.
Hello,
I have exactly the same problem with exact hardware. I have reinstalled OS X several times, but the problem persists and finally it gets frozen and a button restart is required. Any ideas?
David.
DAlvarez72 - Thank you for mentioning the freezing computer. Mine does that as well (fairly regularly). Yesterday I ran Apple Hardware Test (extended) two times. Both tests came back saying that no problems were found.
Same here, I have lived with this for two and a half years now. A couple months ago I did a complete tear down of my 2011 iMac and used a high end thermal paste on all the heat sinks and had some success for about a month then it started to come back. Since then the only thing I have been able to do to limit but not eliminate the problem has been to reduce the resolution of the screen. I suspect strongly it is a video card failure. Is there no solution??
I tried the hardware test, I even tried running it multiple times in a row in an effort to get the problem to be detected. I am considering buying a new graphics card from here http://www.allpartsmac.com/ has anyone had any luck with this route?
I have also considered replacing the graphics card but decided to hold out because of the AHT saying everything is fine. I'm thinking of throwing in the towel and taking it in to the Apple Store today. It's almost unusable at this point. Freezes every few hours.
Out of curiosity, is anybody running dual monitors via the Thunderbolt port? I am, and am wondering if that is possibly stressing the relatively old graphics card?
Unfortunately, your graphics card is going bad and there is no software solution for it.
If you are still under warranty or have AppleCare, take it to the Apple Store and have them replace your graphics card and/or the logic board.
If your machine is out of warranty, no AppleCare...you can still take it back to Apple or an authorized service center but they may charge you through the nose for replacement.
The cheapest/safest route is having the graphics chip reballed by a qualified BGA reball tech. (if you don't know what this is, look up BGA Reball on YouTube)
The cheapest/less safe route would be to heat your GPU chip with a heat gun or by baking it in the oven. There are tons of videos on YouTube on how to do this and you can get a GPU to work again using the heat method BUT it will just buy you a few months (if you're lucky) because when the GPU starts artifacting, there is something structurally wrong with the chip itself. Worst case scenario is you completely destroy the chip and/or damage your machine. Mileage varies a lot on this technique so beware.
That's great news, unfortunately for me the closest apple store is 4 hours away. I'm going to try to try the gpu heat up trick from YouTube. I figure I don't have anything to lose since I was going to buy a new video card from that website I mentioned earlier.
I know this is an old thread, but I too was having this same problem on a 2011 iMac. I upgraded to the macOS Sierra beta hoping maybe it was a driver issue only to find that it still did it. I tried all the other solutions, zapping PRAM, turning on reduced transparency, etc. but nothing changed. Meanwhile I was really annoyed by the wiggle to find your cursor feature they added so I disabled that. Lo, and behold, I have not had another issue since. This has been a week ago now and it was an everyday occurrence.
So it's been four months since my video card was replaced and my graphics gremlins are now back. Blaquespell, you said that you disabled a "cursor feature" which seemed to help. Can you please elaborate on what you did?
Go to System Preferences | Accessibility | Display | uncheck "Shake mouse pointer to locate". It's the feature in El Capitan and Sierra where the mouse cursor scales up big when you wiggle the mouse quickly. I would love to say this 100% solved it, but I have had an issue once or twice, but no where near the level it was before.
Small squares all over screen
